Everlasting Flame
by Crystal Remembrance
Summary: Your water will always be able to put out my fire, but it can't exstinguish the flame in my heart." Leads up to Zutara with some Sukka and possibly Taang. T just in case.
1. Dry as the Desert

**This story is all over the map. Even though it takes place before the Southern Raiders, they have already decided to stay at Zuko's family's vacation house on Ember Island. The idea for this story came to me when I was reading a billion stories of Katara healing Zuko. And I thought it would be great if Katara gets hurt and Zuko has to help her. But remember that Katara still doesn't trust Zuko. Eventually this will be Zutara. All current couples are being shown, which basically just leaves Sukka seeing as Katara is confused about Aang and all. I think I will add some Taang just to make everyone happy. Enough babbling, lets get on with the story.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender. The only I own is the idea and the slight twist in the plot.

**Also I forgot to mention that some parts of this story are going to be in first person. It's not going to be entire chapters, but you'll see that I couldn't write some of this in the omniscient view.**

Ever since we decided to stay in Zuko's vacation home on Ember Island, we've all been sleeping better. Then will someone please tell me when I woke up this morning why I had a killer headache and my throat was as dry as the desert. Sokka, of course tries to make a humorous crack out of my sickness.

"Maybe you're sick because you've been exposed to fancy people viruses!" Everyone turned at stared at Sokka as he was talking to Katara about her sickness.

"Now that is just the most ridiculous think I've ever heard," was Toph's remark.

Katara crossed her arms and raised and eyebrow at him. "Really Sokka, because if that's the case you should be dead." Sokka gave her a questioning look. "What, with all the making out you did with Princess Yue, no wonder." Sokka's face turned a deep scarlet.

"Excuse me, you did what now?" Suki asked as she grabbed his arm and swung him around to face her.

"Um –well -uh- you see-its -…gotta go," he spun out of Suki's grasp and ran from the room. Suki just sighed and then sprinted after him.

"Katara, if you're not feeling well, maybe you should lie down and rest," Aang suggested.

"No. I feel okay enough to be able to help around. And besides I can't leave it all to you guys. Suki is probably going to be chasing down Sokka for the rest of the day, you need to work on your fire bending, Zuko's your teacher, and Toph is blind!"Katara explained to him.

"Hey!" Toph yelled at her. "I can still see," she pointed out.

"Yes, I am aware, Toph. But you're probably going to get everything mixed up and lets face it, you're horrible at organization," Katara told her.

"Fair point," Toph shrugged.

"Okay, I guess you can help out, but if you start to feel dizzy or anything, you should take a break," Aang told her.

"Don't worry, Aang. I know how much I can handle," she told him and she walked to the other side of the room and grabbed a basket that contained all of their dirty clothes. "I'll just go out to the court ward to wash these and then I'll hang them on the balcony."

"Alright then, be careful!" Aang shouted after her.

Zuko noticed the way that Aang stared after Katara as she walked down the hall of the mansion.

"You really care for her, don't you?" Zuko asked Aang.

"Yeah. I know we can never be together, but that doesn't mean I still can't express my feelings."

While Zuko and Aang were talking, Suki was chasing down Sokka in the court yard where Katara was washing the clothes.

"She was getting married and you still chose her over me!" Suki was yelling.

"No! It was before I met you!" was Sokka's excuse.

"No it wasn't," Katara said.

"So even after I kissed you, you choose a betrothed woman over a single Kyoshi Warrior!" Suki continues.

"I have weaknesses. And I didn't think that kiss meant anything!" Sokka said as Suki almost was able to grab his arm but then he twisted out of her grasp and started running in the opposite direction.

Suki suddenly stopped. It was like she was frozen to the spot. Sokka stopped as well and stared at her. "So my heart means nothing to you?" she asked while placing a hand on her chest and looking down at the ground fighting the urge to start crying.

"No, I love you and you mean the world to me," Sokka explained to her as he began walking slowly towards her.

"Then how come even though you knew how I felt, you decided to get a new girlfriend?" Suki asked and finally looked up at him. Her face was streaming with tears.

"Well, first off we all know that I don't think anything through, so I didn't acknowledge it. Second, I thought that I was never going to see you again. But then you showed up and the ferry docks the world became a happier place," he paused. "And, yes, that is my best attempt at sounding poetic." At this point, Sokka was standing right in front of her with her arms out and a goofy smile on his face.

Suki showed a small smile through her tears. "You really mean that, Sokka?"

"Of course I do Suki. I may not always know where I keep my heart, but when I look at you I remember that I entrusted it with you." Suki finally gave in and flung herself into Sokka's awaiting arms and pressed her lips against his as he entwined his arms around her waist. They stood like that for about ten seconds before Katara interrupted.

"Excuse me! Oma and Shu, I'm trying to do the laundry!" Katara shouted to them with a teasing smile on her face.

Sokka and Suki broke apart. "Alright, Suki, come on, lets continue in my room."

"Whatever you say, Mr. Handsom," Suki replied to him as he Put his arm around her waist and they walked back into the mansion.

"Even though that was really sweet, I did not need to witness that.

**What did you think? So the in this chapter, nothing really happened except for the awesome Sukka fluffness. Don't worry it will lead up to something.**

**Please Review!**

**Crystal Remembrance.**


	2. Steps of Doom

**Here is the second chapter! Part of this is from personal experience but of course I didn't have Zuko to help, my best friend did. And of course my expirience didn't happen like the way in the story, if it had, that would have been awkward.**

**Also, I just wanna say that in the last chapter since Suki is my fav character I just had to give her an emotional scene. It's what I do and I know she was OOC but I don't really care.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the last Airbender or the Steps of Doom (they belong to allthatglitters21 on youtube)**

After Katara finished washing the clothes, she wrung them out and threw them back into the basket. She then walked back into the house and up the stairs to the second landing. She walked out onto the balcony where she had hung a clothes line a few days previously. When she finished, she made her way back to the stairs and began climbing down in caution. They were the steepest steps in the history of the world. Sokka had nicknamed them the Steps of Doom. Climbing up them was easy but for some reason, no one had really mastered the art of climbing down. She kept her hand on the rail the whole time. When she got to the last three steps she let go of the railing and immediately lost her balance. As she fell onto the floor, she swore that she heard something crack in her right ankle. She screamed out in pain.

Since Zuko and Aang were in the next room over, they ran right over to her.

"Katara! What happened?" Aang asked her as soon as he saw her sprawled on the floor.

"I lost my balance coming down the stairs and I think I broke my ankle," Katara explained to him. "Can you go get my water skin so I can heal it? It should be hanging on my door in my room."

Aang nodded and sprinted down the hall to Katara's room.

"Would you like me to help you over to a couch?" Zuko asked her with his hand extended.

"No, I don't need any help from you. The only reason why I'm even letting you stay in the group is so Aang can learn fire bending and defeat the Fire Lord. Stop trying to help. I think you've helped me enough," Katara said as she glared at Zuko.

By then, Aang came back with Katara's water skin. She took it and unscrewed it. Her hand flourished as it always did when she withdraws water from the skin, but this time, nothing came out.

Katara gasped. "I can't bend! It's probably because of this stupid cold," Katara said in frustration. "Aang, I wish I had taught you how to heal when I had the chance. Now I can't heal my ankle."

"Perhaps I could be of assistance," Zuko interrupted them.

"And what would _you_ know about healing? You're a fire bender," Katara told.

"I may not be able to water bend, but I know quite a lot about anything medical. Remember, I had the finest schooling in the nation. I'm a prince," Zuko replied.

Katara continued to glare at him while thinking of ways to get her out of the situation.

"Katara, Zuko's the only one around her who knows about medical stuff. Let him help you. If you don't, who knows how long it will be before you can walk again, and we need you for when the comet comes," Aang explained.

"Fine," Katara mumbled. Aang helped her up and supported her as they waddled over to a couch.

"Katara, prop you foot on this pillow. We need to keep your foot elevated to control the swelling," Zuko told her. She did as he said reluctantly. "If you don't listen to me, I can't help you. Now tell me where it hurts." He placed two fingers on her ankle, one on each side, and began to move them up her ankle. When he reached the point in her foot that is right above the bone that juts out of your foot (you guys know what I'm talking about, right?) Katara let out a cry of pain. He began to rub his fingers in little circles on the area. "How does that feel?" he asked her.

"That feels a little better but it still hurts when you touch it," she told him with a painful expression on her face.

"You didn't break your ankle, but it's severely sprained," he told her. "Aang, will you go freeze some water, bring it to me wrapped in a towel and some cloth bandage?"

"Sure, Zuko," Aang replied. He was off again to gather the needed supplies.

"If it's not broken, why did I here something crack?" Katara asked him.

"Your bones crack all the time. There's a big difference between your bones cracking and your bones breaking," Zuko explained to her as he continued to massage her ankle.

When Aang came back, Sokka and Suki were following him.

"Katara, what happened? Aang said you broke your ankle," Sokka said to her with worry clearly in his voice.

"Actually I sprained it while I was walking down the stairs," Katara explained to him.

"Curse those Steps of Doom. This building was so not built to code!" he furiously said.

"Sweet heart, you don't even know what that means," Suki told him.

"I don't care, it sounds like the right thing to say at this moment."

Suki sighed. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Could we have some privacy?" Zuko cut in. "I think Katara's feeling over whelmed."

"Yeah, Sokka, you can take Suki back to your room and do whatever you were doing before," Katara told him.

A wide grin spread grin spread across Sokka's face. "Okay, c'mon, Suki, Zuko said they need privacy." They walked away again.

After Aang gave Zuko the supplies, Zuko said that he had to leave too. "We need some space, Aang. Do you want Katara to get better or not?" With that Aang reluctantly walked out of the room.

Zuko turned back to Katara. "Can you slide your foot towards me so I can wrap it?"

Katara did as he said and moved her foot towards him so he could start wrapping her ankle. He took the cloth and wrapped it around her ankle twice, and then he grabbed the makeshift ice pack and pressed it onto the area that hurt.

"Ouch!" Katara flinched.

"Sorry. Just relax," Zuko told her.

Katara nodded and closed her eyes and leaned back onto the couch so Zuko could finish wrapping her ankle. When he finished, he tied the cloth so the ice would stay on.

"Would you like me to take you back to your room?" Zuko asked her.

"I'd much rather be in the sitting room that connects to the kitchen, and, no, I don't need your help," Katara told him.

"You can't walk, you know?" Zuko replied.

"I can crawl," Katara said stubbornly.

Zuko raised an eyebrow at her. "You want to crawl all the way to the other side of the house on your hands and knees?"

Katara thought about it and winced at the imaginary pain.

"Alright, but I only want your support, I want to try to get back into walking," she told him. He shrugged and extended his hand towards her. She grabbed his hand and he pulled her off the couch. Once Katara was in a standing position, she placed both of her hands on Zuko's shoulders and he put his arm around her shoulders to steady her as they began to walk. Well, Zuko was walking and Katara was limping while dragging her right foot on the ground.

They eventually reached the sitting room that was connected to the kitchen. Toph was in the kitchen eating so she could see Zuko and Katara awkwardly walking into the kitchen.

"Katara, why are you walking so weird?" Toph asked. "Did I miss something important?

Katara plopped down onto a couch and started explain everything to Toph as Zuko walked away.

"So, why were you wrapped around Zuko? Did you finally get a boyfriend?" Toph asked in a teasing voice.

Katara began to blush. "No! He was helping me walk over here," Katara told her.

"Sure, sure," Toph replied.

**What did you think? I love making Katara all stubborn when Zuko is being open and helpful. It's just so fun.**

**Please Review!**

**Crystal Remembrance**


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